Fresno State gives defending national champ Michigan a solid fight. But it wasn’t enough

Fresno State did not pull off the monumental upset.

The Bulldogs could not come up with a dazzling performance on national TV to kick off first-year coach Tim Skipper’s tenure with a historic victory.

Fresno State did put up a decent fight for a while against defending national champion Michigan, and that alone seemed to make the Red Wave proud based on the majority of their social media reaction.

But simply competing against the best never has been good enough based on Fresno State’s past standards — no matter how big the opponent or how hostile the venue.

On Saturday, Fresno State took on one of its biggest challenges in football program history: facing the reigning champs before an announced crowd of 110,665 from the “Big House.”

Fresno State made a late-game threat but ultimately could not knock out the champs as No. 9 Michigan held onto a 30-10 victory.

Offensive struggles through the first three quarters prevented Fresno State from putting a major scare into Michigan.

But the Bulldogs’ defense remained stout during that same stretch and surrendered only one touchdown.

That defensive effort was enough to give Fresno State a chance still going into the fourth quarter.

Then Bulldogs quarterback Mikey Keene found receiver Raylen Sharpe for a 19-yard touchdown pass to reduce Fresno State’s deficit to 16-10 with 10:06 remaining.

An upset special in the works?

Fresno State fans had to be hoping that was the moment their preseason Mountain West all-conference quarterback got hot, as Keene had been known to do last season.

Instead, the defending champs used that score to turn up its own performance.

And shortly after, Fresno State crumbled.

Michigan answered back with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that ended with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Davis Warren to Colston Loveland to extend the Wolverines’ lead to 23-10.

Then the Wolverines followed with another touchdown — by their defense — when All-American Will Johnson returned an interception 86 yards into the end zone with 5:43 remaining and made the final score look like Fresno State never challenged the champs.

Keene, a junior, finished 22 of 36 for 238 passing yards with one touchdown to two interceptions.

Like Keene’s fourth quarter interception, his first pick led to a Michigan touchdown with the Wolverines capitalizing on short starting field position during the first quarter.

How costly were those two turnovers?

Fresno State had almost as many total yards as Michigan (244 to 269) and finished with the same number of first downs (18).

Michigan, which lost much of its offense from last season’s championship team as well as the head coaching mastermind in Jim Harbaugh, committed one turnover. But the interception did not result into Fresno State points.

The Bulldogs’ efforts also were limited by a nonexistent run game that generated a mere average of 0.4 yards per carry and 9 total rushing yards on 22 attempts.

In addition, the Bulldogs converted just 2 of 11 third downs.

Fresno State receiver Jalen Moss finished with six catches for 97 yards. Fellow receiver Mac Dalena had six catches for 67 yards.

Bulldogs defensive back Camryn Bracha registered a game-high 10 tackles, including seven solo.

Cameron Lockridge provided Fresno State’s lone forced turnover with one interception to go with one pass breakup and six tackles.

Michigan, which extended its winning streak to 16 games following last season’s undefeated campaign, didn’t get much production from its passing game (16 of 27 for 121 yards and two touchdowns to one interception).

But the Wolverines backfield amassed 148 rushing yards and an average of 4.4 yards per carry on 34 attempts.

Saturday’s game, played more than 2,300 miles from Fresno and at Ann Arbor, Mich., marked the third time in program history that Fresno State played in an environment with more than 100,000 fans.

The big-picture question following Fresno State’s season opener is whether the Bulldogs can learn from their experience against Michigan to make a run the rest of the way.